Flossing is an important part of your daily dental routine and one that you must follow regularly. This is a well-known fact and it is something you must have surely heard from your dentist. However, the big question is how should you floss? The choice is between two methods that are popular right now. They are flossing using:

Flossing using a string dental floss

A string dental floss is a cord that is made of intertwined thin filaments. This string is used to remove plaque or food particles stuck between your teeth and gums. Some of the different types of dental floss available are waxed, unwaxed, woven, floss sticks etc.

It has been in use for a very long time and it is very effective. It may take some practice to use it well.

Water flosser:

This is a device that uses a stream of water to dislodge plaque and food particles that cannot be reached using a toothbrush. It is easy to use and that it is why it is very popular.
To use a water flosser, all you need to do it lean over the sink and spray the water between your teeth.

Let us look at some factors that can help you decide which method of flossing is best for you.

Price: Though it may seem that the dental floss is way cheaper than a water flosser, one should also keep quality in mind when making a choice. A dental floss may be the winner when it comes to price in the short term. When you think of the long term, a water flosser is a sensible investment as it will last much longer and it offers better quality too.

Ease of use: A water flosser is easy to use than dental floss. Learning to use dental floss will require some time and practice. Once you are proficient it is simple to use. You must also remember to use the dental floss carefully during your initial attempts as you may hurt your gums or fingers.

Time required: Using dental floss may be quick or time consuming and this depends on your level of skill in using it. A water flosser is quicker to use.

Amount of pain: A water flosser may feel painful or gentle depending on its pressure setting. Dental floss may cause pain or bleeding of gums. This could happen due to using the wrong kind of floss or if you have sensitive gums.

Effectiveness:While both the methods are very effective, some studies have shown that using a water flosser is more effective at removing plaque and reducing gingivitis. Dental floss is a better option for spot cleaning while you can choose a water flosser for better overall cleaning. And if you still can’t decide which one is more effective, you can use both.

We hope that this information helps you in choosing the best option for you.

Health Benefits Of Manuka Honey

Not too many people know that honey has a medicinal aspect to it. Most people believe that honey is simply a sugary product that goes well on a butter toast. This, is a crime. Everyone should know the amazing health benefits that manuka honey brings about.

Ancient cave paintings clearly depict how people used honey as medicine over 8,000 years ago. The more sophisticated paintings show how people climbed trees to collect the gold nectar from beehives, and later on applied it to physical wounds.

Georgia (the country) is particularly rich on such cave paintings. According to some scriptures, honey was placed in people’s graves in order to travel with them in their afterlife. Interestingly enough, there was more than one type of honey collected and buried with the dead people.

First signs of health usage and benefits of honey are seen in Egypt. Their legends claim that the God of fertility was offered honey and that’s how he gained his powers. In that region honey has also been used to embalm the dead.

But enough about the dead. Let’s talk about honey’s uses and benefits on the living.

The naturally produced gold nectar does not simply stimulate some taste buds. It is has also proven quite helpful in recovering burns, cuts or rashes. There are numerous reviews of manuka honey brands that have proven such medicinal qualities. Even though this honey is quite rare, and only attainable in New Zealand, its health benefits are incredible.

Research has demonstrated that manuka honey has around 1000 times more MGO (Methylglyoxal) than any other honey. This high MGO level makes this honey very high on anti-bacterial properties. For this reason, when applied to an open wound or cut, it can help quickly kill the destructive bacteria and help the healing process.

The first uses of manuka honey for wound treatment were introduced during World War II. The armies of the allies were running low on antibiotics, so their medics begun to use honey to close wounds and treat wounded soldiers. Since then, a lot of research has supported the high potency of manuka.

These same anti-bacterial properties make manuka one of the most desirable components for beauty products. Many face creams have some low factor manuka honey in them in order to help skin rejuvenation.

Mostly, of course, honey is used for sore throats. Especially when it is mixed with a warm glass of milk and some butter. Such treatment was first introduced by various Native American tribes long before Columbus made his way to the New Continent.

The latest research on raw honey shows that it is beneficial to treating digestive disorders as well. One spoon in the morning, and one in the evening can help calm the digestive system. Continuous usage of manua honey can even begin a healing process.

Herbs are often prescribed according to traditional medical systems. These systems may seem strange and confusing to newcomers, and may present significant language barriers. To those not accustomed to the concepts, they may seem like nonsense. But, traditional medical systems are just like any human scientific paradigm.

You have to be trained to understand them. There are some phenomena which they explain and predict satisfactorily, yielding tremendous health benefits. There are some phenomena that they are unable to explain or predict, frustrating doctors and patients. This is no different from the biomedical paradigm.

Once any of us has grown up or been trained in a given conceptual system, it can be difficult to take another system seriously. The very entities which hold metaphysical and epistemic validity seem like fanciful constructs. In reality, all entities are constructs, which seem real only because of our repeated use of them and because those around us accept their validity. To those who are raised or educated with the concepts of qi or kapha, they seem just as real as gravity and oxygen do to westerners.

To a scientist who wishes to transcend the paradigm of his training and win new insights into the natural world and new opportunities to shape that world to our liking, the basis of metaphysical validity must be a concept’s potential to explain and predict empiric phenomena.

Traditional herbal systems and herbs for weight loss are no more nonsensical than Newtonian physics. We all realize that while Newtonian physics has been disproved and supplanted by modern physics, it is still very useful. The relation between traditional medical systems and the biochemical model is similar but more problematic because they have been developed separately by multiple distinct communities.

The biomedical model has had difficulty explaining and predicting certain phenomena associated with traditional systems, e.g. acupuncture. Therefore, the biomedical model has not been able to completely supplant the other systems.

Will a unifying model of human pathophysiology emerge? Perhaps not. Through most of human history distinct medical systems have coexisted, alternately cooperating and competing. Dominance by a single system is the exception. Complete dominance for any system seems unlikely.

Modern herbalism in America is highly syncretic, borrowing concepts from the biomedical system as well as multiple herbal systems. For the time being patients and practitioners must navigate multiple conceptual worlds. Yet it is often in the interstices between paradigms that the most fruitful ideas can take form.

Synergy and Simpling: how herbal medicines are blended

One of the biggest conceptual differences between conventional medicine and herbalism is the attitude toward the simultaneous use of multiple medications. With rare exceptions (combination antimicrobials or combination hypoglycemic) conventional medicine prefers the patient to use a few drugs as possible. Herbalism takes the opposite approach, believing that the action of herbs is synergistic.

Keep in mind that herbs contain multiple active constituents and have multiple physiological actions. Herbs are traditionally used in combination. Herbs are combined into formulas according to traditional systems. Some herbs are traditionally used together or thought to combine well together. Some formulas have become classics because clinical experience has found them to be very efficacious.

Each herbal system has its own rules of blending (See the panel for an example of a very basic system). When not using traditional formulas, herbs are blended specially for the individual patient. Blending is an art that requires a knowledge of material medica and skill in evaluating the patient. No two patients receive the same herbs and the blends are constantly adjusted. This makes evaluation by clinical trials problematic to say the least.

Today, most herb use in the United States is on a folk basis. Patients buy herbs at a shop without consulting a trained herbalist. They purchase either single herbs (simples) or modern, eclectic blends not based on a traditional system, but combining herbs from around the world. The blending is done by herbalists who work for manufacturers and is based on a combination of traditional lore, ethnographic study and modern clinical studies.

Evaluating Safety and Efficacy of Herbs

Evaluating the safety and efficacy of herbs is a highly controversial issue. This is a difficult topic, and deserves to be considered in an open-minded and sympathetic way. We must all remain respectful of those who disagree with us about methodology or conclusions.

The single greatest obstacle to careful evaluation of herbs is scarcity of resources. If the average drug in the US cost $500 million to develop and bring to market, it will be a long time before a substantial portion of the world of herbalism is validated by the accepted standards of the biomedical model. This is not to say that we should not make an effort to apply as many of the techniques of the drug development system to herbs as we can. Most users would welcome more resources for controlled investigation of herbs. But any person who denies themselves or others the opportunity to improve their health through existing knowledge and techniques of herbalism is foolish.

Other obstacles are methodological. The use of herbs in traditional systems does not lend itself to controlled studies because herbs are used in combinations that are continually adjusted for each patient. Herbs are usually used in conjunction with lifestyle changes or vitamin supplements.

Much of the research that is done on herbs is of limited usefulness because it is focused on pharmacognosy, with the intent of identifying active constituents as a step toward developing a patentable drug, not for the sake of evaluating the efficacy of the herb in its traditional use.

A recent troubling development is increased investigation of adverse reactions and drug interactions of herbs. It it not that herbalist do not want this information or think it is important. The controversial part is that this type of research may receive much more funding than efficacy research. Imagine the misleading picture that would be created if research into conventional drugs only focused on their safety and not efficacy. Inevitably some research would reveal safety problems, while no research would show efficacy. If research focused only on the hundreds of thousands who die as a result of conventional medications and not the millions whose lives are saved or improved, it would create a very misleading picture.

For these reasons the standards of evidence-based medicine which should be applied to conventional medications are not always appropriate when applied to herbs. History, literature, tradition, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, as well as pharmacologic, animal, small, or uncontrolled studies may be combined with double-blind, placebo-controlled studies to make reasonable safety and efficacy claims as well as sound clinical decisions.

About: Jose Henry

Jose Henry is the person working behind this blog with his small team of writers and marketers. They are sharing useful and helpful stuff about herbalism, medicines and much more. Stay connected to get the latest updates into your inbox,